2.6 lakh kids to get health identity cards

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2.6 lakh kids to get health identity cards

Vijayawada, Nov. 14: The district administration will distribute 2.6 lakh Jawahar Health Cards to children studying in the government schools, residential schools and aided schools in Krishna district in order to maintain the health records of the students.
The district medical and health department and Rajiv Vidya Mission will jointly monitor the implementation of the health scheme known as Jawahar Bala Arogya Raksha (JBAR) for children aged between 5 and 14 years. Students studying up to Class I to V will be given blue card and Class IV to X students will get grey colour card.
As part of the scheme, doctors will conduct monthly medical tests and maintain health details of the students. The tests will be useful to identify cardiac, dental, eye, lungs and other problems and assess the health problems to be faced by the children . The state government will give special training to teachers and staff working in the schools on the medical and personal care to be taken in the schools for students.
The district collector, Mr Peeyush Kumar, on Sunday formally launched the scheme in Eedpugallu village of Kankipadu mandal. Awareness camps will be organised to educate people on the implementation of the scheme. Mr Peeyush Kumar, after launching the scheme, said the health card will be issued to the students after completion of school education along with the transfer certificate.
Rajiv Vidya Mission in-charge project officer, Mr P.S.A. Prasad, said children studying in rural areas would be initially covered under the programme. He hoped the government would extend the schenme to urban areas too.
The health card scheme was also launched in Guntur district to take care of 5,40,000 schoolchildren studying in 4,200 government schools in the district. Under this scheme, doctors will go to schools on every Thursday to conduct health check-ups to the students.
Speaking on the occasion, the district collector, Mr B. Ramanjaneyulu, directed the science teachers in every school to take care of the children’s health.
The MLC, Mr K.S. Lakshmana Rao, said the government will distribute two pairs of school uniforms from the next academic year at a cost of Rs 230 crore.

Marriage, work forcing kids out of Delhi schools

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Marriage, work forcing kids out of Delhi schools

New Delhi: The right to education act might have made education compulsory for children in the 6-14 age group, but very few government schools in Delhi seem to be aware of this as they have been allowing students to drop out on grounds like work, marriage, long absences and non-payment of fees.
This was revealed by a Right To Information (RTI) plea, which also said only two out of 28 zones under the directorate of education in the capital could give information on government school dropouts.
RTI activist Manish Bhatnagar says when he sought information on school dropouts in 2009-10, the divisional officers of the state education department didn't have any such details.
Then he applied RTI to the directorate of education to know the number of school dropouts, but out of the 28 zones across Delhi he only got responses from the northwest and outer zones.
Information from the rest was not provided.
"Even from the two zones, the plight of school dropouts was startling. The information given showed that mostly girls studying in Classes 8 and 9 were granted school leaving certificates (SLC) as they had to get married while some institutions granted the same to boys as they had to work," Bhatnagar said.
The RTI findings reveal that the UK Rajakiya Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Daryapur Kalan, Delhi, granted SLC to a student, Kanchan of Class 5, mentioning that the family was shifting back to their home state of Bihar for labour work and she was needed to support the family in the work.
The same school replied that the administration had granted SLC to a student, Sonam of Class 10, as she was about to get married.
As per the Government Co-Ed Secondary School, C-block, Metro Vihar, Holambi Kalan, in the present session they have provided the SLC to Class 5 student Rakesh, who has been working and has been absent for a long time.
Almost all schools of northwest Delhi have answered that the maximum number of students dropped out due to long absence and non-payment of dues.
Rakesh Singhar, national secretary of the child rights NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), told IANS, "The status of Delhi government schools is no doubt like this. Government school teachers and officers are less aware of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE Act 2009)."
The RTE Act states that every child in the age group of 6-14 will be provided elementary education in an age appropriate classroom in the vicinity of his or her neighbourhood.
The act also states that any cost that prevents a child from accessing school will be borne by the state which shall have the responsibility of enrolling the child as well as ensuring attendance and completion of eight years of schooling. No child shall be denied admission for want of documents; no child shall be turned away if the admission cycle in the school is over and no child shall be asked to take an admission test, as per the rule.
Singhar also said in Delhi that only six percent of them were aware of RTE. Many government school teachers, principals, MCD officials and lower level district education officers are not aware of RTE.
"When crores of rupees are spent by the Indian government to eradicate illiteracy, in schools in the outer district, particularly Narela, in Classes 8 and 9 the school dropout rate of girls is high as all of them get married. When we ask the principal why they grant SLC on this ground, they can offer no reasons," Bhatnagar added.
Singhar said: "Often when we rescue children who are being exploited as labourers, we discover that they are school dropouts. This is a major problem but the government is less concerned."